External Hinderances of Self-Acquaintance

I doubt not but there are many that, by this time, are desirous to be instructed, how this self-knowledge may be attained: for whose satisfaction, and for the reducing of all that hath been spoken into practice, I shall next acquaint you with the hinderances of self-knowledge (the removing of them being not the least point in the cure), and with the positive directions to be practised for the attainment of it. And because the hinderances and helps are contrary, I shall open both together as we go on.

The hinderances of self-knowledge are some of them without us, and some within us; and so must be the helps.

I. The external hinderances are these.

]. The failing of ministers in their part of the work, through unskilfulness or unfaithfulness, is a great cause that so many are ignorant of themselves. They are the lights of the world; and if they are eclipsed, or put under a bushel; if they are darkened by the snufF of their own corruptions; or if they feed not their light by the oil of diligent studies, and other endeavours; or if they will not go along with men into the dark and unknown corners of the heart, what wonder if men’s hearts remain in darkness, when those that, by office, are appointed to afford them light, do fail them? It is not a general dull discourse, or critical observations upon words, or the subtle decision of some nice and curious questions of the schools, nor is it a neat and well-composed speech, about some other distant matters, that is likely to acquaint a sinner with himself. How many sermons may we hear, that are levelled at some mark or other, that is very far from the hearers’ hearts, and, therefore,’are never likely to convince them, or open and convert them? And if our congregations were in such a case, as that they needed no closer quickening work, such preaching might be borne with and commended; but when so many usually sit before us, that must shortly die, and are unprepared, and that are condemned by the law of God, and must be pardoned or finally condemned; that must be saved from their sins, that they may be saved from everlasting misery, I think it is time for us to talk to them of such things as most concern them; and that in such a manner as may most effectually convince, awaken, and change them. When we come to them on their sick-beds, we talk not then to them of distant or impertinent things, but of the state of their souls, and their appearing before the Lord, and how they may be ready, that death may be both safe and comfortable to them: (though a superstitious miserable fellow, that knoweth no better things himself, may talk to the sick of beads, and relics, and of being on this side or that, for this ceremony or the other, and may think to conjure the unholy spirit out of him, by some affected words of devotions, uttered from a graceless, senseless heart; or to command him out by papal authority, as if they would charm his soul to heaven, by saying over some lifeless forms, and using the gospel as a spell; yet ministers indeed, that know themselves what faith and what repentance is, and what it is to be regenerate, and to be prepared to die, do know that they have other work to do.) The gospel offereth men their choice, whether they will have holiness or sin; and to be ruled by Christ, or by their fleshly lusts; and so whether they will have spiritual or carnal, eternal, or transitory joys. And our work is to persuade them to make that choice which will be their happiness, and which eternal joy depends upon; whether we come to them in sickness or in health, this is our business with them. A man that is ready to be drowned, is not at leisure for a song or dance: and a man that is ready to be damned, roethinks should not find himself at leisure to hear a man show his wit and reading only, if not his folly and malice against a life of holiness: nor should you think that suitable to such men’s case, that doth not evidently tend to save them. But, alas, how often have we heard such sermons, as tend more to diversion than direction, to fill their minds with other matters, and find men something else to think on, lest they should study themselves, and know their misery! A preacher that seems to speak religiously, by a sapless, dry discourse, that is called a sermon, may more plausibly and easily divert him: and his conscience will more quietly suffer him to be taken off the necessary care of his salvation, by something that is

like it, and pretends to do the work as well, than by the grosser avocations, or the scorns of fools: and he will more tamely be turned from religion, by something that is called religioUj and which he hopes may serve the turn, than by open wickedness, or impious defiance of God and reason. But how oft do we hear applauded sermons, which force us, in compassion to men’s souls, to think, O what is all this to the opening a sinner’s heart unto himself, and showing him his unregenerate state! What is this to the conviction of a self-deluding soul, that is passing unto hell with the confident expectations of heaven! To the opening of men’s eyes, and turning them from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God! What is this to show men their undone condition, and the absolute necessity of Christ, and of renewing grace! What is in this to lead men up from earth to heaven, and to acquaint them with the unseen world, and to help them to the life of faith and love, and to the mortifying and the pardon of their sins! How little skill have many miserable preachers, in the searching of the heart, and helping men to know themselves, whether Christ be in them, or whether they be reprobates! And how little care and diligence are used by them to call men to the trial, and help them in the examining and judging of themselves, as if it were a work of no necessity! “They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace, saith the Lord.” “Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace; and one built up a wall, and, lo, others daubed it with untempered mortar: say unto them which daub it with untempered mortar, that it shall fall: there shall be an overflowing shower; and ye, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall rend it. Lo, o 3 when the wall is fallen, shall it not be said unto you, Where is the daubing wherewith ye have daubed it?”

It is a plain and terrible passage, “He that saith to the wicked, Thou art righteous; him shall the people curse; nations shall abhor him.” Such injustice in a judge, or witnesses, is odious, that determine but in order to temporal rewards or punishments. But in a messenger that professeth to speak to men in the name of God, and in the stead of Jesus Christ, when the determination hath respect to tlje consciences of men, and to their endless joy or torment, how odious and horrid a crime must it be esteemed, to persuade the wicked that he is righteous; or to speak that, which tendeth to persuade him of it, though not in open, plain expressions! What perfidious dealing is this against the Holy God! What an abuse of our Redeemer, that his pretended messengers shall make him seem to judge clean contrary to his holiness, and to his law, and to the judgment which indeed he passeth, and will pass, on all that live and die unsanctified! What vile deceit and cruelty against the souls of men are such preachers guilty of, that would make them believe that all is well with them, or that their state is safe or tolerable, till they must find it otherwise to their woe! What shame, what punishment can be too great for such a wretch, when the neglect and making light of Christ and his salvation, is the common road to hell? And most men perish, because they value not, and use not, the necessary means of their recovery; for a man, in the name of a minister of the gospel, to cheat them into such uudervaluings and neglects, as are likely to prove their condemnation; what is this but to play the minister of Satan, and to do his work, in the name and garb of a minister of Christ? It is a damnable treachery against Christ and against the people’s souls, to hide their misery, when it is your office to reveal it; and to let people deceive themselves in the matters of salvation, and not to labour diHgently to undeceive them. But some go further, and more opeidy act the part of Satan, by reproaching the most faithful servants of the Lord, and labouring to bring the people into a conceit, that seriousness and carefulness, in the matters of God and our salvation, are but hypocrisy and unnecessary strictness: and in their company and converse they give so much countenance to the ungodly, and cast so much secret or open scorn upon those that would live according to the Scriptures, as hardeneth multitudes in their impenitency. O dreadful reckoning to these unfaithful shepherds, when they must answer for the ruin of their miserable flocks! How great will their damnation be, which must be aggravated by the damnation of so many others! When the question is, ‘How come so many souls to perish?’ The answer must be, ‘Because they set light by Christ and holiness, which should have saved them.’ But what made them set light by Christ and holiness? It was their deceitful confidence, that they had so much part in Christ and holiness, as would suffice to save them, though indeed they were unsanctified strangers to both. They were not practically acquainted with their necessities. But how came they to continue thus ignorant of themselves till it was too late?

Because they had teachers that kept them strange to the nature of true holiness, and did not labour, publicly and privately, to convince them of their undone condition, and drive them to Christ, that by him they might have life. Woe to such teachers that ever they were born, that must then be found under the guilt of such perfidiousness and cruelty! Had they ever felt themselves, what it is to be pursued by the law of conscience, and with broken hearts to cast themselves on Christ as their only hope and refuge, and what it is to be pardoned, and saved by him from the wrath of God; and what it is to be sanctified, and to be sensible of all his love, they would take another course with sinners, and talk of sin, and Christ, and holiness, at other rates, and not deceive their people with themselves.

Direct. 1. My first direction, therefore, to you, is in order to the knowledge of yourselves, that, if it be possible, you will live under a faithful, soul-searching, skilful pastor; and that you will make use of his public and personal help, to bring you, and keep you in continual acquaintance with yourselves.

As there is a double use of physicians; one general, to teach men the common principles of physic, and the other particular, to apply these common precepts to each individual person as they need: so is there a double use of ministers of the gospel; one to deliver publicly the common doctrines of Christianity, concerning man’s sin and misery, and the remedy, &c. and the other to help people in the personal application of all this to themselves. And they that take up only with the former, deprive themselves of half the benefit of the ministry.

1. In public, how skilful and diligent should we be, in opening the hearts of sinners to themselves! The pulpit is but our candlestick, from which we should diffuse the holy light into all the assembly; not speaking the same things of all that are before us, as if it were our work to trouble men, or only to comfort them: but, as the same light will show every man the things which he beholdeth, in their varieties and differences, so the same word of truth which we deliver, must be so discovering and discriminating, as to manifest the ungodly to be ungodly, and the carnal to be carnal; the worldling to be a worlding; the hypocrite to be a hypocrite; and the enemies of holiness to be as they are; and the sincere to be sincere; and the renewed soul to be indeed renewed. The same light must show the excellency of sanctification, and the filthiness of sin; the glory of the image of Christ, and the deformity of that spiritual death, which is its privation. It must show the righteous to be “more excellent than his neighbour,” and help men to “discern between the righteous and the wicked; between him that serveth God, and him that serveth him not.” We must not be like the miserable ungodly preachers, that cannot describe the state of grace with clearness and feelingly, because they never knew it; or that dare not discover the unsanctified, lest they detect themselves, nor judge them according to their office, lest they condemn themselves; and that preach to the ungodly as if all were well with them; and they dare not awaken the consciences of others, lest they should awaken and affright their own: and therefore are ready to scorn at all distinguishing preachers, and to take the discovery of regeneration to be but the boasting of hypocrisy; as if he that woultl difler from the most, or did pretend to the speclnl privileges of the saints, did but as the Pharisee, “Thank God that he is not like other men;” or say, “Stand by, I am more holy than thou.” And if these preachers could prove that all men should be saved that will but say they are Christians, they might then have hope of being saved themselves, without that serious piety which they so distaste. No wonder, therefore, if they preach in the language of Korah: “Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord?” But the Lord saith, “If you take, forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: let them return unto thee, but return not thou unto them.” If you love not differencing preaching, make no difference from the true members of Christ by your hypocrisy or ungodly living; be such as they, and we shall not difference you from them. Read but the first Psalm, and the fifteenth Psalm, and the third of John, and the eighth to the Romans, and the third Epistle of John; and then tell me whether the Scripture be not a differencing word, condemning some, and justifying others, and showing the true state of the difference between them. What! is there no difference between the heirs of heaven and hell? Or is the difference no more, than that one hath the name of a Christian, and not the other? O no! when the dreadful differencing day is come, men shall find that there was another kind of difference between the way of life and death: when many shall say,” Lord,

Lord, have not we prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?” To whom Christ will profess, “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” When “many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven: but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” What a difference will appear between those that now converse together, between whom the world, that judgeth by the outside, discerns but little or no difference! When those things shall be executed that are written in Matt. xxv. and 2 Thess. i. () what a difference will then appear! When of those that were in the same church, the same house, the same shop, the same bed, one shall be- taken, and the other left: and the felicity that -was hid in the seed of grace, shall shine forth to the astonishment of the world, in the fulness of eternal glory!

I know preachers are ordinarily hated that thus difference between the godly and the ungodly: the very names of difference are matter of scorn to guilty souls, because they imply the matter of their terror. I have often noted this with admiration, in the success of Christ’s own doctrine upon the Jews, when he had so preached the gospel, as that he had the testimony of the multitude that wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of his mouth, yet some were cavilling and believed not; and he saith, “I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the heaven was shut up three years, &c. But unto none of them was EJias sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, to a woman that was a widow. And mnny lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus the prophet; and none of them were cleansed, saving Naaman the Syrian.” But how was this differencing doctrine of Christ entertained by the Jews? It is said, “All they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill, whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.” Read it, and consider what moved these men to so much rage against Christ himself for preaching this doctrine, which restrained the fruit of the gospel to a few; and then you will not wonder, if those preachers that imitate Christ in this, be used no better than their Master.

But let ministers know that this is their duty, to show every man himself, his deeds, and state, as indeed they are: and let Christians choose and love such ministers. Choose not the glass that makes you fairest, but which is truest, and representeth you to yourselves as God accounteth you; whether he do it with more eloquence or less, with smoother or with rougher language: hear him if you may, that will best acquaint you with the truth of your condition, and choose not those that speak not to the heart.

2. And when you have heard the best, the most searching preacher, do not think that now you can do all the rest of the work yourselves, and that you have no further need of help; but make use of their more particular personal advice.

1. In case that, after your most diligent self-examination, you are yet at uncertainty and doubt, whether you are truly sanctified or not, the settling of your states for all eternity, and the well-grounding of your hopes and comforts, is a matter of such unspeakable moment, as that you should not remain in careless, negligent uncertainty, while God hath provided you any further means that may be used for assurance. Yea, if you were not troubled with doubting, yet if you have opportunity of opening your evidences to a judicious, faithful minister or friend, I think it may be worth your labour, for the confirmation of the peace and comforts which you have. You cannot make too sure of everlasting happiness.

2. And not only in the first settling of your peace, but also when any notable assault or dangerous temptation shall afterward shake it, which you cannot overcome without assistance, it is seasonable to betake yourselves to a physician; and also, in case of any dangerous lapse or declining, that hath brought you into a state of darkness.

4. Also, in case of any particular corruption or temptation, your particular inclinations may, cautiously, be opened to a faithful guide, that, by his prudent and lively counsel, you may be strengthened. If you say, ‘To what end do ministers preach to me, and why do I hear them opening the natures of grace and of hypocrisy, if I cannot judge of myself by the doctrine which they preach?’ I answer, I. You may and must judge yourselves by the public common helps, as far as you are able; but a personal, applying help, added unto this, is a further advantage. And humility should teach you, not to think better of your understandings than there is cause; nor to think you are so wise as to need but one help, when God hath provided you two. And doth not your own experience convince you? Do you not find, that, after the best public preaching, you are yet in doubt, and at a loss about your spiritual state, and therefore that you have need of further help?

2. I further answer you: There is so great a diversity of particular circumstances in the cases of particular persons, that a great deal of help is necessary to most, to pass a right judgment, when they do understand both the law and the fact. Will yon think it enough that you have the statutes of the land, and the law-books, to judge of all your own cases by? Or will you not think that you have also need of the counsel of the wisest lawyer, in your weightiest cases, to help you to judge of your cause by the particular application of the law to it? It is not reading a book only, or hearing a lecture, that can make you as understanding as the masters of the profession. So is it in matters of the soul. When you have heard much, and understand much, you cannot in modesty think that all the sense of Scripture, about those points, is known as exactly to you, as to your most judicious teachers; and that you are as able at once to see all the passages of the word, and of the fact, as may enable you to pass so clear a judgment on it. Perhaps you will say, that you know your own hearts and actions better than they do. I answer, you do so, or should do so; and it is you that they must know it from; and yet, when you have done, you may not be able to judge of your state by those acts which you say you know. You must show the lawyer all your evidences: he cannot see them, till you show them him; and yet when he seeth them, he can judge of them whether they are good or bad, and of your title by them, better than you can that have the keeping of them, because he better understands the law.

But perhaps you will say, that when you have gone to ministers, and opened your case to them, they cannot resolve you, but you are still in doubt.

I answer, 1. Perhaps when they have resolved them, yet you would not be resolved. Have they not told you the truth, and you would not believe it? Or directed you to remedies which you would not use? They cannot, when they have told you the truth, compel you to believe it; nor when they have told you what will do the cure, they cannot make you use it if you refuse.

2. And what if the nature of the disease be obstinate, and will not be cured easily and at once, but with time, and diligence, and patience? Will you therefore think the means are vain? Must you at once, or in a short time, be resolved, and delivered from all your doubts, about your title to eternal life, or else will you cast oft’ all advice? Should your children learn thus of their teachers, they were likely to make unhappy scholars. As you will not have done with Christ, if he cure you not at once, nor give over praying, if you have not all your desires at once, (if you love yourselves,) so you must not have done with the counsel of your guides, if they satisfy not your doubts at once: as you cease not hearing them in public, though you have still your doubtings; so why should you cease advising with them personally upon that account? Use God’s means, and be thankful, if” by degrees they do cure, and prevail at last.

Object. * But I find it is God only that can speak peace; and therefore it is vain to hang on men.’

I answer, God spcaketh by his word and Spirit: his word is to be delivered, expounded, and applied to you by his ministers: if therefore you will have it from God, you must not refuse his own appointed ordinary means. The Spirit comforteth by the promise: as in conversion God useth not to do it by the Spirit, without, but in, and by the ministry of the word, so also in all our directions, and satisfaction and comfort afterwards. As he that will run from the ministry of the word, because it is God that must convert, doth indeed run from God, and is not likely to be converted; so is it in point of assurance and consolation. The teachers of the church “are to be accounted of as the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God,” “by whom the people have believed;” “not having dominion over their faith, but being helpers of their joy;” “who are comforted in all their tribulations, that they might be able to comfort them that are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith they themselves are comforted of God.” They are to be “faithful and wise stewards, whom the Lord maketh rulers over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season.” Thus Christ has given “authority to his servants, and appointed to every man his work,” and “given pastors and teachers to his church, for the perfectuig of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man.” These, therefore, being Christ’s oflScers, and this their appointed work, we must receive so much of God’s mercies by their hands, as belongeth to their office to administer. “If there be a messenger with him, an interpreter, one among a thousand, to show unto man his uprightness, then God is gracious unto him, and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom.”

So that you see it is God’s way to show to man his uprightness, and to speak peace to souls by his messengers and interpreters that are fitted and authorised thereto.

Object. ‘But it is but few that are able thus to discuss the case of unsettled, doubting souls, and to give them clear and safe directions, that may save both from presumption and despair: in many places the ministers are senseless of these things, and unacquainted with the concerns and works of conscience, and have nothing to say to us, unless to deride us as scrupulous and precise; and bid us not trouble our heads about such matters, seeing God is merciful, and Christ died for sinners. They will discourse with us long enough about news, or worldly businesses, or opinions, or controversies; but when we open to them the state of our souls, and desire their advice for the “making our calling and election sure,” they have no sense or savour of such discourse: and many ministers that are truly conscientious, are yet so unskilful and so weak, that we have no encouragement to acquaint them with our state.’

To this I answer: It cannot be denied but all this is too true; and it is matter of lamentation, and must send us to God, with the old petition which Christ himself hath put into our mouths, “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.”

But consider that this is no unusual thing; for all this, there is no nation under heaven, that hath more able, faithful ministers of Christ, than are in these nations. Alas, how much of the church is guided by mere ignorant readers! And how much by superstitious deceivers! Did you know the case of the poor Christians in the Ethiopian, the Greek, and the Roman churches, you would bless God that it is so well with us; even when the church was in a narrower room, yet God complained, “Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness. They have made it desolate, and being desolate it mourneth unto me. — Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the Lord. Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people. Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them; behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the Lord. — And I will set up shepherds over them, which shall feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed.” Then was the church fain to take up this lamentation.

“Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it. My tabernacle is spoiled, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth of me, and they are not; there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains. For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the Lord: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered.”

But the voice of healing mercy saith, “Only acknowledge thine iniquity, 8cc. — Turn, O backsliding children. See. — and I will give you pastors according to my heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.”

You see, in all other professions, that require not supernatural illumination, there are but few that attain to excellency; it is but in few that nature layeth the foundation, or giveth that capacity to be excellent, which grace doth elevate and improve.

Take, therefore, the advice of the ablest you can get. I will not persuade you to go always to the minister of your parish, to open the case of your souls, be he fit or unfit; but to the fittest that you can have access to: the Papists themselves will give men leave to choose others for their confessors. Where there is most of the heavenly illumination, and holy skill in the matters of the soul; where there is the soundest and most exact judgment, joined with experience and tendcrcompassion, and faithful plainness, and cautious secrecy, there open your hearts, if you have an opportunity, and take the help of such faithful counsellors to acquaint yon with yourselves.

Object. ‘But such ministers being few, and having more of greater work than they can turn them to, are not to be spoken with as oft as my necessity requireth help.’

A/isw. Use then the best that are at leisure; and it is not only ministers that you must use, but any other Christian friend that hath such abilities and qualifications, as fit them to assist you: whosoever hath the light, refuse not to come to it; God’s gifts and graces may be helpful to you in a parent, a husband, a neighbour, and not only in a minister.

Quest. ‘But how far may a dark and doubting person take up and rest in the judgment of a minister, or of others, about the state of his soul, when he is not satisfied himself?’

Answ. This question is of very great use, and therefore the more carefully to be resolved; I shall answer it, therefore, 1. Negatively, and, 2. Affirmatively.

1. No man’s judgment of your state is to be taken as absolutely infallible or divine: nor is man to be believed, as God is, with a divine belief. When they tell you, that ‘If you are regenerate, you are justified,’ then they do but tell you what God hath told you, and, therefore, this is to be taken as of infallible certainty, not as it is their word, but as it is God’s. So also, when they tell you, that ‘If you are unconverted, you are not forgiven.’ But when they tell you, that ‘you are converted or unconverted, pardoned or unpardoned,’ this judgment is not to be taken as infallible or divine.

2. For the bare matter of fact (whether you repent or not; whether you had rather be holy or unholy, &c.) there is no minister that can know your heart so well as yourselves may know it, except in case when melancholy or passion, or a weakness of understanding on one side, or a wilfulness of presumption on the other side, doth make men judge of their own condition quite contrary to the evidence that appeareth in their lives to others.

3. It is not safe to rest on the judgment of one that is either an enemy or stranger to the workings of a careful, troubled soul; or one that is fond of any private opinion of his own, and layeth out his zeal to form people into his opinion, as if the life of religion lay in that: nor yet of a weak, unskilful man.

4. It is not safe for you to rest much in the judgment of one that knows you not, and is not acquainted of the bent and manner of your lives, but must judge only by the present expressions of your own mouths.

5. It is not safe for you to rest on the judgment of any one single person, when the judgment of most of your judicious acquaintance is contrary to it.

2. Affirmatively, I answer,

1. By a divine faith you are bound to believe all the promises of Scripture that your pastor (or any other) shall acquaint you with.

2. As a disciple of Christ, you are bound to learn the meaning of those promises (and other passages of the Scripture) from your teachers, duly authorised to instruct you: and with such a human belief, as a scholar oweth to his teacher in arts or sciences, you are bound to believe your teachers concerning the meaning of the promises, in cases wherein you are

P 45 unable yourselves to understand tlic word by its proper light and evidence, as well as they; and in case you see no evidence of falsehood in their exposition, nor have any special reason to distrust them. He that will believe nothing that his teacher telleth him, in order to his own understanding, shall never understand by teaching. If you know as much as he already, you need no teacher: if you do not, you must believe him, or else you can never learn of him. But this is not to take him for omniscient, or infallible in himself, but to credit him as a man.

3. You are bound, when he judgeth of your particular case, upon your opening to him the matter of fact, to allow him so much credit as is due to the proportion of his understanding. You tell him how you feel your hearts affected, and what the actions of your lives have been; when you have told it him, he judgeth by God’s word, whether this be a state of saving grace which you describe, or not; if upon much stronger parts, or longer study, and more experience, he know more of the meaning of the word, and of the nature of grace, and so be abler to judge than you, modesty requireth that you do in that measure submit your understanding unto his, and believe him according to the measure of his skill, upon supposition that you deceive him not in your information. Even as you will believe a lawyer about your title to your lands, when you have showed him your evidence; or a physician about your disease, when you have told him what you feel.

4. You are bound to add also, all that credit that his honesty and fidelity requireth, if he be a godly man, unwilling to deceive you.

5. And you are bound to add so much belief, as in the case is due to a stander-by that is not blinded by self-love, or partiality, or passions, or any selfish bias, as most men are to themselves.

6. If you are darkened by melancholy, or any other weakening distemper, that maketh you incapable of judging for yourselves, you are bound to allow another so much credit, as the advantage of his sounder understanding, and more composed judgment doth require. If every child, or sick person, will believe nobody that doth not say as they, their self-conceitedness and their distrust of others will be their wrong.

7. In the manner of reception, you are bound to do all this with such a submission as belongeth to an officer of Christ: not that you are to believe any falsehood that he bringeth you, and fathereth upon Christ; nor to put out your own eyes, and see with his; but to learn of him to understand yourselves, and receive what he bringeth you, according to his office.

8. You may yet more boldly and confidently give credit to the judgment of such a minister of Christ, when he is not singular, but speaks according to the concurrent judgment of the generality of able, experienced men: modesty will forbid you to think yourselves wiser than all the able ministers about you.

9. You have the less reason to suspect his judgment, when you may be sure that he is not perverted by any self-interest or self-respect, and frustrateth not the truth for fear of displeasing you, or bringing any discredit or suffering on himself.

10. Lastly, Wheu all these things concur, you

p 2 may, with the greater confidence, rest upon his judgment. And though still he is but an imperfect man, and no absolute certainty of your state can be had from his bare judgment, (though from his doctrine, and the effects and signs, there may,) yet such a judgment should weigh very much with you, to the raising of fear and care in the ungodly, and for the quieting of a troubled soul.

Let us now apply this direction to both parties. Beloved, if any of you can look before you to eternity, and do not, with awakened thoughts, conclude, that all probable means should be used in time, to make sure of your final justification at the dreadful day of God, that man wants either the faith of a Christian, or the feeling of a considerate man. Are you all desirous to be sure beforehand, what sentence shall pass upon you then, or are you not? If you are, come on, and let me make a motion that you cannot reasonably refuse: the business is of unspeakable consequence: to be deceived, may be to be undone for ever. Will you advise with those that God hath appointed to give you advice in so great a case? Well then; will you go and faithfully open your state to some able, faithful minister of Christ? Not to an ignorant, carnal, unexperienced man, but to one that is skilled in spiritual affairs, and that will be faithful to you, and deal with that serious gravity and reverence as beseems him that is helping to prepare a soul for the bar of Christ. Will you tell him, whether ever you were convinced of your sin and misery? And whether ever you saw the need of Christ? And whether you have loathed yourselves for your iniquities, and fled to Christ, as your only refuge from the wrath of God, and have turned away, with resolution, from your former ungodly, careless life, and have changed your company, your business, and your delights? Whether you make it your chief business to please God, and to save your souls? and resolve to take up with the hopes of heaven as your only portion, and not to hazard it for any worldly interest, or fleshly pleasure whatsoever? “Whether in your eyes a vile person be contemned, but you love and honour them that fear the Lord?” Tell these, and other such particulars of your state, to your faithful pastors: answer them to these, and such like questions, and then take their judgment (with the cautions before expressed) of your spiritual state. Hear what they will tell you of it. Alight not this course convince thee of thy miserable state, that never hadst any such evidences as these to show? and might it not awaken thee in time, to bethink thee of a safer course? Go to any faithful minister in the world, and tell him the plain truth, that yet thou art a secret fornicator, or drunkard, or flesh-pleaser in some sensual way; or if thou sinnest not so grossly, that yet thou art a formal hypocrite, and hast a secret enmity to those that are most seriously religious, and live the most heavenly lives, and that thou art thyself a stranger to sanctification: and I dare assure thee that he will tell thee, if thou art thus indeed, thou art in the “gall of bitterness, and the bond of iniquity,” and must be speedily renewed and sanctified, and justified, or thou art undone for ever. I tell thee, there is not a man that is worthy the name of a minister, but will pass this judgment on the condition of thy soul. And, yet, wilt thou bear it out with a senseless heart, a seared conscience, and a brazen face; and still live as carelessly as if all were well with thee! What! is thy soul of no more worth? Is it so small a matter with thee, what becometh of thee? Or is the judgment of able, faithful ministers, in the way of their own office, of no more regard with thee? They show thee the plain word of God against thee; and that his threatening contains the virtual sentence of thy condemnation: they are, by office, the interpreters of the law of God to you; it hath been the study of their lives. Do they pronounce you miserable, as being strangers to the Spirit of Christ? So they did by themselves, when they saw their sin; and, therefore, they are impartial: they have had before them multitudes, (alas! too

many,) in your case: and you will regard the judgment of a physician, that hath had many hundreds in hand that had the same disease as you. They are men that are not willing to deceive you. They deny themselves, in telling you of your danger: they know that smoother words would please you better; and they have natures that desire men’s love and favour, rather than displeasure. They are more impartial than you are, and have not your self-interest and passion to blind them: they are not abused in their judgment by the temptations of evil company, or of worldly, fleshly things as you are; for these temptations more hinder us from judging ourselves than other men. They are the messengers of Christ, appointed to give to each their portion; and should not their judgment be regarded, in the business committed to their trust? And it is not one man or two, or a hundred only, that are of this mind. Open thy case to all the judicious, faithful ministers in the land, and open it truly, and they will all tell thee, that ‘If thou die without converting, sanctifying grace, thou art lost for ever and that all the world cannot save thee from the everlasting wrath of God. Try as many of them as you will, and see if all of them tell you not the same thing. And is all this nothing to thee, presumptuous sinner, that in the judgment of all the most able, faithful ministers of Christ, thy soul should be in a state of death? If all the physicians in the country should tell thee, that ‘Thou hast a disease that will certainly be thy death, unless thou take some one effectual medicine in time,’ I think thou wouldst not slight their judgment, and say, they are too censorious, that thou knowcst thy condition better than they. I think it would affright thee to seek after the remedy. And why should not the judgment of the faithful ministers, about the state of thy soul, be so far regarded, as to awaken ihee to a more careful inquiry, and stir up a preventing and remedying fear?

O the madness of a hardened sinner! that when he showeth, by the fruits of an ungodly life, that he is a stranger to sanctification, and liveth in the sins which the Scripture threatcncth damnation to, and hath no evidence of true conversion to show, will yet be confident of pardon and salvation, let God and all his ministers say what they will against it! and will rather be offended with his spiritual physicians, for telling him of the danger of his state, and rail at them as if they did him wrong, than he will see his danger and prevent his misery! Let such a one hear the word of God, if he have ears to hear, “Lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood, and it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst: the Lord will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord, and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven. And the Lord shall separate him unto evil.”

And, on the other hand, is there any soul among you, that, in doubts, hath opened his case to the faithful ministers of Christ, and their judgment is, that your state is safe? Is this the judgment, not only of the weakest, but the wisest; not only of one or two, but of ail, or most of the judicious ministers that ever you opened your case to; even of the most honest and impartial, that would not flatter nor deceive you? Yea, and perhaps, when desertions, or melancholy, or passion, or ignorance, do make you unmeet to judge of yourselves. And doth all this seem nothing to you; or a small matter? It is not nothing; it is not small. I confess it is no ground of certainty: they are but men: it is a human testimony; but yet it is a testimony that may weigh down many of your own surmises, and take off much of your distressing fears, and may give much ease to troubled souls, while they arc seeking after surer knowledge. It is a ground of comfort, not to be despised, or made light of. Till you can come to see your evidences yourselves, and to be acquainted with the indwelling Spirit as your witness, you may much quiet your minds, and take much comfort, in this judgment and witness of the servants of the Lord, that have a spirit of discerning, and have that grace which acquainteth them with the nature of grace in others, and that have been long exercised in the discerning of men’s states. It is possible a hypocrite (especially one that wilfully giveth them a false relation of himself) may deceive them; but it is probable that it is not one of many they are deceived in, when they know or have a good description of the person. If in a fever, all the ablest physicians tell you the danger is past, it is possible they may be all deceived: but yet, I think, you would take some comfort in such a testimony; so should you here. Though the judgment of ministers be not infallible, it may be much better than your own, though about yourselves; and it may be set against the jealousies and fears of a disquiet soul, and against abundance of the molesting suggestions of the accuser.

I do not, by all this, draw you to lay too much on man; I advance them not too high, and make them not lords of your faith, but helpers of your joy. I bid you not fully and finally rest in the judgment of man; I bid you not neglect any means to come to fuller knowledge, and certainty of your own sincerity. I bid you not forbear any means that tend to the getting of true grace. If you have it, and know it not, the same means may increase it, which you use to get it: and if you have it not, when it is thought you have it, the means may work it, that are intended to increase it. Do all that you can to p 3 repent, believe, and love God, and live to him, whether you ever did these before or not. But yet let the judgment of your faithful pastors, the officers and experienced servants of the Lord, keep off despondency and despair, that would disable you from the use of the means, and would weaken your hands, and make you sit down in unprofitable complaints, and give up all as hopeless. Let their judgment quiet you in the way of duty; lean on them in the dark, till you come into the light. Yea, be glad that you have so much encouragement and hope, from those that are by Christ appointed to subserve the Spirit, in the comforting as well as the sanctifying work, and to show to man his uprightness, and to say to the righteous, “It shall be well with him.” I tell you, all the wealth of the world is not worth even this much ground of comfort. Live upon this much, till, by diligent attendance, and waiting on the Spirit of grace and comfort, you can get higher.

2. The second extrinsic hinderance of Self-knowledge is prosperity, and the flattery that usually attendeth it. The one disposeth men to be deceived, and the other putteth the hood over their eyes, and tells them the falsehoods which deceive them.

When men prosper in the world, their minds are lifted up with their estates; and they can hardly believe that they are indeed so ill, while they feel themselves so well; and that so much misery is joined with so much content and pleasure. They cannot taste the bitterness of their sin, and God’s displeasure, while the sweetness of worldly delights and honours is in their mouths. The rich man in Luke xvi. would have (fiven a man but an unwelcome entertainment, that had come to tell him that, within a few days or years, he should lie in hell, and not be able to get a drop of water to cool his tongue! What need we doubt of that, when his five brethren, that he left on earth behind him, would not be persuaded (to know their danger of those flames, and to use the necessary means to escape them), though one had come to them from the dead! You plead against their feeling, when you tell them of their misery, when they feel prosperity. And, therefore, it is a matter of lamentable difficulty, to make a prospering sinner well acquainted with his misery. He is drunken with fleshly pleasures and contentments: and when the drink is in a man’s head, you can hardly make him sensible of his misery. The devil is therefore willing to reach his servants as full a cup of prosperity as he can, that their drunkenness may keep them from the true use of their reason: for if they once come to themselves, they will come home to God, When misery brought the prodigal to himself, he rcsolveth presently of going to his father. The bustle of his worldly business, and the vain discourse that is in his ears, and the mirth and sport that takes him up, will not allow him so much of reason, as seriously to consider of his soul’s condition, Alas! when poor men, that must labour all day for food and raiment, can find some time for serious converse with God, and with their consciences, the great ones of the world have no such leisure. How many are going apace towards hell, and say, they cannot have time to bethink themselves what way they are in, or whither it is that they are going! That which they have all their time for, they have no time for, because they have no hearts for it. Prosperity doth so please their flesh, that they can give no heed to conscience or reason: it doth so charm their minds, and enslave their wills to sense and appetite, that they cannot endure to be so melancholy, as to prepare for death and judgment, or to consider seriously how this will relish with them at the end; nor scarcely to remember that they are men, that should rule their senses, and be ruled by God, and that have another life to live.

And as prosperity in itself is so great a hinderance to the knowledge of yourselves, so flatterers, that are the flies of summer, are always ready to blow upon the prosperous, and increase the danger. What miserable men are extolled as wise, and virtuous, and religious, if they be but rich and great! their vices are masked, or extenuated, and made but little human frailties; though they were gluttons, or drunkards, or filthy fornicators, or mere flesh-pleasing, sensual brutes, that waste most of their lives in ease and sports, and eating and drinking, and such delights; yet, with their flatterers, all these shall go for prudent, pious, worthy persons, if they can but seek, when they have done, to mock God and their consciences with some lip-service and lifeless carcase of religion. O happy men, if God would judge of them as their flatterers do; and would make as small a matter of their wickedness, and as great a matter of their outside, hypocritical, heartless worship I But they must be greater than men or angels, and higher than either earth or heaven, before God will flatter them. When they can make him afraid of their high looks or threatenings, or when they can put him in hope of rising by their preferment, then they may look that he should comply with their parasites, and compliment with his enemies, and justify the ungodly; but not till then. O did they consider how little flattery doth secure them, and how little the Judge of all the world regards their worldly pomp and splendour; yea, how greatly their greatness doth aggravate their sin and misery, they would frown their flatterers out of doors, and call for plain and faithful dealers. Of all the miseries of worldly greatness, this is not the least, that usually such want the necessary blessing of a glass that will truly show them their faces; of a friend at hand that will deal plainly and justly with their souls. Who tells them plainly of the odiousness, and bitter fruits of sin; and of the wrath of God, and endless misery? How few such true and faithful friends have they! and what wonder, when it is a carnal inducement that draweth men to follow them. It is their wealth and honour, and their power to do men good or hurt in outward things, that makes their friends. They are attended by these flies and wasps, because they carry the honey-pot which they love. And God saith to his followers, “Love not the world, nor the things that are in the world: if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” And it is for love of worldly things, even the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and pride of life, &c. which are not of the Father, but of the world: it is for these that great men have their friends and followers: and, therefore, it is plain, that the worst sort of men are ordinarily their friends; for those are the worst men, that have not the love of the Father in them, but arc the friends of the world, and, therefore, the enemies of God. And the best, though fit to be their truest friends, are seldom their followers, as knowing that the attractive of the sensual world is a shadow, unfit to deceive those that are acquainted with its vanity, and a snare, unfit to take those that have observed how Satan lays and baits the trap, and how they have fared that have been taken in it. A despised Christ, that hath the words of eternal life, is much more followed by men that have the heavenly relish. Such gracious souls, whose appetites are not corrupted by the creature, have more mind to flock after a spiritual and powerful messenger of Christ, that talks to them of his kingdom, and the righteousness thereof, which they first seek, than to gape after the preferment and vain-glory of prosperity. Christ, that despised the offer of all the kingdoms and glory of the world, doth teach his followers to despise them.

Seeing, then, the ordinary attendants of the prosperous are the worst of men, that seek themselves, and are purveying for the flesh, what wonder if they be flatterers, that have neither skill, nor will, to speak that unpleasing language of reproof, that should make the prosperous know themselves! O how seldom (or never) do they hear, what the poor can hear from every mouth! If a man of low degree be wicked, or offend, his enemy dare tell him of it, and his friend dare tell him of it, and his angry neighbour, or companion, will be sure to tell him of it; and they dare tell him frequently till he amend, and tell him plainly. But if great ones be as bad, and need more help, as having more temptation, yet, alas! they may sin, and sin again, and perish, for any body that will deal faithfully with their souls, except some faithful minister of Christ, whose plainness is taken but for a thing of course. And usually, even ministers themselves arc some of them so unfaithful, and some so fearful, and some so prudently cautious, that such persons have no such help from them to know themselves, as the poorer sort of people have. If we deal freely with them, if it olFcnd, yet offence may be easily borne, as bringing no ill consequents to our ministry; but if we deal so with the great ones of the world, what outcries would it raise, and by what names should we and our preaching be called! Though yet I doubt not but it is borne and loved by those that have true grace; and that if David sin, he can endure to hear from Nathan, “Thou art the man.” And an Eli can bear the prophecy of Samuel, and say, “It is the Lord; let him do what seemeth him good.” And a Hczekiah can say, “Good is the word of the Lord which thou hast spoken;” and Josiah can bear the threatenings of Iluldah. And it is a double honour in persons that have so great temptations, to love the plain discoveries of their sin; but a Joash will slay even Zcchariah, the son of Jchoiada, that set him up; and a Herod, that hath so much religion as to fear John, as knowing that he was a just man, and a holy, and to observe (or save him); and when he heard him, to do many things, and hear him gladly, had yet so much love to his fleshly lust, and so little power to resist a flatterer, as that lie coiikl sell both the head of John and his own soul, for so pitiful a price as this. So true is that saying of Christ himself, “For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved (or discovered). But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.”

And, indeed, there is none that more opposeth Micaiah than Zedekiah, as being concerned for the honour of his flattering prophecy, to bring plain dealing into disgrace. It is he that smiteth him, and saith, “Which way went the Spirit of the Lord from me, to speak unto thee?” But saith Solomon, “He that rebuketh a man, afterward shall find more favour than he that flattereth with the tongue.” And, “Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.” When prosperity is vanished, the flatterer and the faithful dealer will be better known. None of them will admire or applaud you when you are low, and the tide is gone, and hath left you in contempt: these kind of men will be as ready as any to reproach you; as Shcmei that honoured David in his prosperity, but curseth him, and revileth him as a rebel against Saul, and casteth stones at him, when he saw him flying in distress. Commonly men in misery, or at death, have better thoughts of faithful plainness, and worse of smoothing man-pleasers, than before.

But whom can the prosperous blame so much as themselves, if they are undone by the deceit of flatterers? It is their own choice; they love to have it so; they will not endure faithful dealing. When they contract those diseases which will not be cured without bitter medicines, they hate the physician that offereth them; their appetites and sensual lust, and not their believing-reason, doth choose their work, their pleasures, and their company, and prescribe what language must be spoken to them. And he that resolves to cast away the remedy, and will please his appetite and fancy, come of it what will, must take what he gets by it, and bear the endless wrath of God, that could not bear the necessary warnings and self-knowledge that should have prevented it. Did these men hate sin, and the messengers of Satan, they would not hate the justice and messengers of God; but while they damnably love fleshly pleasures, they cannot savingly love the word that chargeth them to let go those pleasures, nor the persons that cross them in the things they love. And thus, poor worldlings are ruined by their own desires; it seemeth so sweet to them to live in sin, that they cannot endure to know the bitter fruits of misery, which it will at last bring forth. They are conquered by their fleshly lusts, and, therefore, they hate the messengers of that Spirit which would fight against them. Satan doth perfect his former victories in them, by dispelling, or dispersing, the auxiliaries of Christ, that were sent for their rescue and relief. They live as if they were purposely made great, that they may be able to drive away the messengers of salvation, and to keep the voice of mercy far enough from their ears; and to command that which the Gadarenes did en-. treat, that Christ would go out of their coasts, because they would not be troubled with him. They so much love the way to hell, that they cannot abide to be told whither it leadeth them, and, therefore, they come thither before they are aware, and must know themselves by the unquenchable fire, because they would not know themselves by the discovering recovering light. And thus, by prosperity and flattery, Satan pursues and wins his game.

Direct. 2. In opposition to this hinderance, two things are to be done. 1. Desire not so perilous a station as worldly prosperity and greatness is. Love not, and seek not, a condition so hazardous to your souls. Leave that to them that take it for their portion, as not, believing what they must lose and suffer by it; or what God hath revealed of the life to come.

Or if you be in such prosperity, not by your desire, but by the will and providence of God, let your fear and watchfulness be doubled, as your dangers are; be not like those sensualists, that “feed themselves without fear.” Use not prosperity to the pleasing of the flesh, and the prospering of your lusts, but deny yourselves in the midst of your abundance; and turn it into an adversity to your sensual inclinations, by taming the body, and bringing it into subjection, and suspecting yourselves, and walking humbly with God and man.

And when adversity is upon you, improve the opportunity for the knowledge of yourselves. Then take a just survey of your former course of life. Then try your ways, when the drunkenness and deceits of prosperity are past, and the hand of God hath brought you into a sober and considerate state. O how many souls do know that in one day, when adversity hath made them wise and sensible, which before they knew, and would not know; they saw it, but did not understand and feel it! Then, on a sudden, they are able to pass a right judgment, upon their yielding to temptations, and the value of the things that tempted them, and upon their worldly designs, and fleshly wisdom, and their neglects of God, and heaven, and duty, than before they could do, though they had ever so much instruction. Affliction taketh away the deceiving advantages of fleshly objects, and unmasketh the glory and profit of the world, and awakeneth the rational faculties to perform their ofSce, and, therefore, is an excellent opportunity for self-acquaintance. The prodigal came to himself, when he was denied to fill his belly with the food of swine. Nature teacheth men to understand that it is the principal lesson that affliction readeth to us, to know ourselves, and our ways, as they are related to God and to his judgment.

2. If you are in prosperity, be the more suspicious of flatterers, and drive them away with the greater detestation. And be the more solicitous to procure such faithful overseers and physicians for your souls, as will do their best to save you, though they displease you. O that you knew what an advantage it is to have a faithful pastor, and a faithful friend, that seek not yours but you, and make no advantage to themselves by flattering you, but choose the means that tend most to your salvation! And O that you knew the great disadvantage of those that want such a pastor, and such a friend! You would then be sure to give it as your strictest charge to both, to deal plainly with you, and never to hide or extenuate your sin or danger. You would charge your teachers, ‘Whatever you do, deal faithfully with my soul! If you see me in any dangerous course, I beseech you tell me of it; if I should be hardened against your warnings and reproofs, I beseech you deal not lightly with me, but labour to awaken me, and set it home, and pull me out of the fire, and save me as with fear. O suffer me not to be quiet in ray sins.’ The like charge, also, you would give to your friends that are about you, and converse with you; choose such pastors, and such friends, as are fittest, to prove your friends indeed; and charge and entreat them, as they love your souls, and as they will answer it before God, that they suffer you not to sin for fear of displeasing you by plain reproofs; and resolve to submit and take it well. A stander-by hath the great advantage of impartiality, and, therefore, may see that in you what you observe not in yourselves: self-love doth not hinder us so much in judging of other men’s cases as our own. Friendly and faithful dealing, in the matters of eternal consequence, is the principal use and benefit of friendship. This differenceth the communion of saints from Beelzebub’s swarm of flies and caterpillars. Thus, “two are better than one: for if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth, for he hath not another to help him up.” Much more woe to him, that hath a multitude to cast him and to keep him down.

Hind. 3. The third extrinsical impediment to self-knowledge, is conversing only with such as are as bad as ourselves; and not with such whose lives display the spiritual endowment, and excellencies which we want. Though Christians that know better the common disease, do know that there must be a common humiliation and remedy, yet these indeed are the thoughts of most; they know not that it is a matter of dishonour and lamentation, to be no better than the most, and to lie in the common corruptions of the world, and to have no better hearts than they had by nature. To heqj preachers talk of holiness, and a Divine nature, and a new birth, and of being made new creatures, and of living in the love of God, and in the joyful hopes of endless glory, doth seem to them but as the talk of a world in the sun, or the description of an angel, which humbleth not them at all, for not being such, nor exciteth in them any great desires to be such: as long as they see not the persons that are such, they think these are but devout imaginations, or the pious dreams of melancholy men; and that indeed there are no such persons in the world. They judge of all the world, or almost all, by those about them; and they think that God should be unmerciful if he should condemn so great a number as they see are like themselves; and shcaild save none but those few transcendent souls that they describe, but are unacquainted with.

It sometimes melteth my heart, in pity of many great ones of the world, to think how hard a matter it is for them to know indeed what holiness is; when they seldom hear so much as one heavenly prayer or discourse, or any serious talk of the matters of sanctification, and communion with Christ. When prof’aneness and wickedness dwell about them, and make such as are but civil and temperate, and good-natured persons, to seem saints: when they see but few that fear the Lord, and love him unfeignedly, and live by faith: and those few are perhaps of the more cold, and timorous, and temporizing strain, that show forth but little of the heavenly nature, and the virtues of their holy faith; that dare scarce open their mouths to speak against the wickedness which they see or heay; that dare not discourse like the saints of the Most High, and the heirs of heaven, for fear of being made the scorn and by-word of the rest, or of falling under the frowns and dislike of their superiors; so that they live among others almost like common men, save only that they run not with them to their excess of riot; and think it enough that by such forbearance of gross sin, they are in some measure evil spoken of: when they that should “let their light so shine before men, that they might see their good works, and glorify their heavenly Father, do hide their religion, and put their light as under a bushel, and not in a candlestick, that it might give light to all that are in the house;” and so, when religion never appeareth in its proper splendour and power, and heavenly tendency, to those great ones that have no better company, what wonder if they never know themselves, nor truly understand the nature, necessity, or excellency of religion? When they know it, for the most part, but by hearsay, yea, and when they hear it more reproached than applauded, it must be a miracle of mercy that must make such men to be sincerely and heartily religious. When they see so many about them worse than themselves, and so few better, and those few that are better do hide it, and live almost as if they were no better; and when the godly, whom they see not, are described to them by the serpent’s seed, as if they were but a company of whining, melancholy, brain-sick hypocrites, who can expect that ever such men should savingly know themselves or Christ, unless a wonder of mercy rescue them, and bring them from this darkness and delusion into the light? O how oft have I wished in compassion to many of the great ones of the world, that they did but hear the humble, holy, heavenly language, that we have heard! And hear the faithful fervent prayers that many poor Christians pour out before the Lord! and saw but the humble, harmless, exemplary, and heavenly lives of many poor Christians, that are represented to them as the filth and the ofFscouring of the world, and perhaps no more regarded than Lazarus was at the rich man’s gate. Did they but see and hear, and know such holy and heavenly believers, and were as well acquainted with them as we are, how many of them would better know themselves, and see what they want, and what they must be, and better discern between the righteous and the wicked, between those that fear God, and those that fear him not?

Direct. 3. It will, therefore, be a great help to the knowledge of yourselves, if you will converse with those that bear the holy image of their Creator, and whose lives will tell you what it is to live by faith, and what it is to walk in the Spirit, to mortify the flesh, and to live above all the alluring vanities of the world. We can more sensibly perceive the nature of holiness, when we see it in action before our eyes, than when we only read a description of it. Many thousands can honour the name of a saint, and the Scripture descriptions of a saint, that hate the life of holiness, when it appeareth to them in practice, and cannot endure a saint indeed. It will most convincingly tell you what you want, when you see what others have. To see how naturally they breathe after heaven, will most convincingly show you the dulness and earthliness of your minds: to see how easily they can love an enemy, and forgive a wrong, will acquaint you most sensibly with the evils of your passionate, revengeful minds. Do but lay by your prejudice and partiality, and see whether there be not in serious Christians another spirit than in the world: and whether they live not upon the things above, which your belief and love did never reach? Look upon believers, and consider why they pray, and watch, and study to please God, and then bethink yourselves, whether you have not as much cause to do so as they: and so you may perceive your negligence by their diligence; your senselessness by their tenderness of heart and conscience; your fleshliness by their spirituality; and the rest of your sins by the lustre of their graces. As Isidore saith, “Men know not themselves by themselves alone.”

Hence, therefore, the servants of God may see how exactly they should live, and of what consequence it is that they be eminently holy; when it is they that, by their heavenly excellency, must convince the world of their sinfulness and misery. O Christians, do you live such exemplary and convincing lives? Is there indeed that excellency of holiness appearing in you, which may show men, to the glory of your Redeemer, how the heirs of heaven do differ from the world? Al as! our common, careless living, doth wrong to multitudes as well as to ourselves; and is a cruelty to the souls whose salvation we are bound, by our examples, to promote. What then do those men, that by their vicious, scandalous conversation, do harden the ungodly, and cause them to think contemptuously, and to speak scornfully, of the holy way! O woe to them, if they repent not, by whom such offence cometh!

Especially, ministers should see that their lives be a continual lecture. And, therefore, Chrysostora concludeth, “That a priest that is bad, doth acquire, by his priesthood, not dignity but disgrace. For (saith he) thou sittest in judgment on thyself: if thou live well and preach well, thou instructest the people: if thou preach well and live ill, thou condemnest thyself. For by living well and preaching well, thou instructest the people how to live: but by preaching well and living ill, thou instructest God, as it were, how to condemn thee.”

And hence it is, also, that the servants of God should have the care of their fame, as well as of their conversation; because the reputation of religion dependeth much on the reputation of the religious: and reputation doth much to the encouraging or discouraging of the ungodly that are strangers to the things themselves. Saith Augustine, “Conscience is necessary for thyself: and thy good name is necessary for thy neighbour.” When we raind our fame for the Q 45 good of others, and the service of God, and not to please a proud, vainglorious mind; and when we do it, without immoderate care, seeking it only by righteous means, and referring the issue to the will of God, as being prepared for evil report as well as good, this is but to improve our talent to our Master’s use.